Amorphous Windows of Steven Holl’s Queens Library

This
incomplete building being constructed on
Hunters Pointin Long Island City’sskyline
is problematical in these pages,
for the simple reason that we’re dealing with curtain walling.
Previous to this example we’ve mostly spoken out against sealed glazed environments,
but it’s time to change our minds:
it seems appropriate to sanction them for some public buildings,
namely cultural ones,
because their technique is formidable and they seem to be a norm in contemporary
culture.1
However, rather than catering to the type fully,
we will propose to deal with them, from time to time, critically.

A simulated view
from the East River towards the Queens Library Branch
at Hunters Point, Queens, New York City
(Holl_QL, 2010).
The library is shown sit­u­ated in the midst of sur­round­ing hous­ing tow­ers.
Immediately behind the library, at a greater distance,
is the
Citigroup Building,
the tallest building in New York City (and State) outside of Manhattan.

above:
Architectural model of the Queens Library Branch.
(Holl_QL1, 2010)below:
Computer generated interior view in the library
looking through the upper part of a window
at the Manhattan skyline of the United Nations.
In the model above, the window appears at the middle
of the right-hand vertical side.
(Holl_QL2, 2010), (Holl_QL3, 2010)

Circulation
in the building means going to young people’s, teen’s, and adult’s sections.
There are the proper precautions for acoustic conditions on the interior
and there is access to the roof
and on ground level there is a reading garden with ginko trees, overlooking the East River.

So
instead of this blog’s dual purpose,
aims of experiencing air and light through opening windows,
we are judging solely the judicious framing of light and surrounding view.
This forced-air functioning library with its massive organically perforated shell,
is situated in the midst of surrounding repetitive, reticulated glazed housing towers–serving as their foil.
Besides the external imaging,
within it there are striking views of Roosevelt Island and Manhattan.
The library’s exterior skin is aluminum-painted concrete
cut with enormous amorphous shapes for screened views beyond the curtain wall.
The irregularity of the window shapes helps to mediate the repetitive row of vertically-lined neighboring towers.
One view published in Architect’s Newspaper
(Melcher, 2015)
has a wide slit of a shape that both frames a stunning view of Manhattan including silhouettes of the UN Secretariat
and offers a warm glow on the
soffits
within the library.

Inside the library, seen above and at the stairwells,
are the massed upper regions of ceilings with an awesome cubic play of blocks that is so effective
and fulfill the architect,
Steven Holl’s
phenomenological sense-perception.
The reference to cubism in these projecting, overlapping, and recessing massive volumes
gives the library an ambiguous air:
the incoming light on the staircases provides a mysterious note countering the rational effect of the surrounding buildings.

The
aluminum painted concrete is being used instead of structural aluminum because of cost constraints;
the library was trying to meet the price just shy of $40 million and painting it was economically necessary.
Interestingly enough, Holl is a master water color painter
and has had some of his architectonic masses and volumes
painted in metallic hues in other designs,
although that has been solely for internal use.

In another fairly recent building by Holl
(showing his continuous inclination towards operable windows when appropriate),
MIT’s Simmons
Hall2
University Residence
(Holl_SH, 1999),
there is a pithy of 2 × 2 feet casement windows,
deeply
set3
into the dorm rooms for the students.
The interior space contains some wonderful, sculptural masses with cubic effect,
comparable in the dramatic feeling to the Queens Library.

Close
acoustic attention is paid by Holl,
just as in his previous extension to the Amerika Gedenkbibliotek in Berlin
(Holl_AGB, 1988).
That Holl’s past is something to contend with in the present
is evident from the above example as well as
Edge of the City(Holl, 1996)
projects illustrated in the 2003 monograph on Holl, introduced by Kenneth Frampton
(Frampton, 2003).
Of note are the Mountain Buildings
(Frampton, 2003, 44–45)
and the competition project for the François Pinault Foundation, Ile Seguin,
(Holl_FFP, 2001),(Frampton, 2003, 56–65).
Both these designs show Holl engaged with cut-out masses, presumably for apertures,
with the latter, like Queens Library, set romantically on a river’s bank.

1
Also, in residential windows it seems that
passive construction,
namely air-tight windows, is sustainable, helping the current global warming crisis.
If other air purification methods are present and working,
like a global use of solar or wind energy,
then we can happily rely more on our diversity of operable windows.

Steven Holl’s Sarphatistraat Offices in Amsterdam
(Holl_SO, 1996).
is another
“sponge”–like
structure with a arrangement of apertures
influenced by a fractal object known as the Menger Sponge
(Furmanek, 2012),
(Masheck, 2002).
left:
Steven Holl’s Sarphatis­traat Offices functions as a pavilion containing the staff restaurant for the housing corporation headquarters
Het Oosten and can be rented for business and cultural, non-private, gatherings.
(Het Oosten Pavilion, Sarphatistraat 410, Amsterdam, Netherlands)("Amsterdam Travel Guide Reviews", n.d., photo)

right:
“…
At the Sarphatistraat Offices in Amsterdam the new building approaches the Singel Canal
to duplicate the high of its bulk with its reflection;
as well as, during the night, introduces a set of color patches floating in the dark.
…”
(Safont-Tria, 2011, Fig. 8).
The Menger Sponge is an example of how fractal objects,
starting out as abstract topological constructs to help
mathematicians formulate fundamental ideas in the modernization of their subject,
have broadened their appeal, over more than a century,
to catch the visual imagination of the general public,
and influence the creativity of artists, engineers, and architects.
The Menger Sponge is a 3-D generalization of the Sierpinski Carpet fractal,
which in turn is a 2-D generalization of the Cantor Set fractal.
The images below show these fractals to be perfectly symmetrical
since they were formed by removing a consistent measured part from their exact centers.
But, by introducing slight perturbations, or randomness, in the size and placement of the parts removed or added,
more natural forms, much closer to the organic shapes of nature, are realized
(a prime example is the groundbreaking 2 minute video from 1980 by Loren Carpenter,
Vol Libre).
In both Sim­mons Hall and the Sarphatis­traat Offices,
Steven Holl has placed the larger openings asymmetrically,
giving a lighter, more natural, less formal appearance.

Cantor Set
–
Iteration
of
(Click or tap the image to cycle through iterations.)
Canvas is not supported.The
Cantor Set is a linear fractal
introduced by German mathematician
Georg Cantor
in 1883
(Cantor, 1883)
to help lay the foundations of modern point-set topology.
It is created by repeatedly deleting the middle third of a given line segment,
leaving two equal, disconnected line segments,
upon which, in turn, the process is repeated through an infinite number of iterations.
Sierpinski Carpet
–
Iteration
of
(Click or tap the Carpet to cycle through iterations.)
Canvas is not supported.The
Sierpinski Carpet is a plane fractal
first described by the Polish mathematician
Wacław Sierpiński
in 1916
(Sier­pi?ski, 1916).
The carpet is one generalization of the Cantor set to two dimensions.
It is cre­ated by repeat­edly delet­ing the mid­dle square of a given square,
leaving eight equal, contiguous squares,
upon which, in turn, the process is repeated through an infinite number of iterations.

Menger Sponge
–
Iteration
of
(Click or tap the Sponge to cycle through iterations.
Drag cursor,or use mouse wheel, over Sponge,
with or without shift-key,
to rotate, approach, or move away from it.
With multi-touch,
roll virtual trackball with one finger;
pinch, zoom, rotate, with two fingers.)
Canvas is not supported.The
Menger Sponge is a 3-dimensional fractal
first described by the Austrian-American mathematician
Karl Menger
in 1926
(Menger, 1926).
The sponge is a generalization of the Cantor Set and Sierpinsky Carpet to three dimensions.
It is cre­ated by repeat­edly delet­ing the mid­dle cube from the inside and faces of a given cube,
leaving twenty equal, contiguous cubes,
upon which, in turn, the process is repeated through an infinite number of iterations.

For over a century, the theoretical and practical work of fractals remained hidden from view
as a unified field of inquiry in its own right.
In 2008,
Benoit Mandelbrot
said:

But I was so alone that the direction I was following was not described by any existing word.
In 1975, my work forced me to coin one: fractal.
The Latin adjective, fractus, can denote anything that is like a broken-up stone—irregular and fragmented.
The sudden realization that “fractal” deserved to be put in a book’s title
(Mandelbrot, 1975)
changed nothing in the substance
but brought considerable change in the perception of my work. The word is now found in many dictionaries.
(Mandelbrot, Jersey, 2005)

By creating this term, Benoit Mandelbrot has made it possible to grasp
the continuity of development in the field of fractals,
from its early, isolated theoretical results to today’s broad and practical work in the arts and sciences.
Trip inside a Menger Sponge,
a 1¾ minute video
that gives a visual sense of the architectural structure inside a Menger Sponge
("Trip inside a Menger Sponge level 14 (3D fractal)", 2012).

Collision with glass is the single biggest known killer of birds in the United States,
claiming hundreds of millions or more lives each year.
Unlike some sources of mortality that predominantly kill weaker individuals,
there is no distinction among victims of glass.
Because glass is equally dangerous for strong, healthy, breeding adults,
it can have a particularly serious impact on populations.
(Sheppard, 2011, 5)

The Conservancy mentions as a solution to this problem that:

Deeply recessed windows, such as these on Stephen [sic] Holl’s Simmons Hall at MIT,
can block viewing of glass from most angles.
(Sheppard, 2011, 20)

Holl_QL3, Steven. 2010–2015. “Geo-Spatial Triangular Relation of the Hunters Point Community Library, Queens, with the United Nations and Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island.” Architectural Firm. Steven Holl Architects - Hunters Point Community Library. 2010–2015. http://www.stevenholl.com/media/files/426/1SHA_QUEENS_01_WVER.jpg.

About Suzanne Frank

I first let curiosity lead me to windows. As a child I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade leaning out my grandparents’ 10-storey-high window on 69th Street & Central Park West, and as a Ph.D. candidate I was drawn to the large windows along the Amsterdam canal houses in which the residents acted out their lives with little self-con­scious­ness. Now, I see them still as curiosities, but curiosities with artful bents. My posts will be about matters that I am attracted to in their historical dimension; in their beauty; in their embrasure or rejection of ecological aspects; and in their language of formal meanings; etc. Friends and colleagues suggest the topics and I follow up on them, or I suddenly get an idea on my own after going on a bus ride or reading in a library …… Stay Tuned!